Chairman, Federal B Area Association of Trade and Industry (FBAATI), Idrees Gigi, said that industrialists suffered around 30 percent production losses as a very large number of labourers failed to report on duty owing transport strike.
He said that around 70 percent units in this industrial area have their own transport system for workers while some unit owners did not allowed their night shift to go home. He said that the industrialists were facing big problem to keep their units operative due to day to day strikes, long hours power load-shedding, increasing the cost of doing business.
Expressing concern over the statement of caretaker finance minister in which he said that oil prices would be increased at intervals of 15 days till June this year, he said that increase after 15 days will jeopardise production schedule, and costing of goods would affect orders.
About frequent power failures, he said that continuous power failures after every hour for at least two hours, beside 4 hours scheduled load shedding, have already crippled industrial process.
He said that meeting the production targets has become impossible, and added that increase in production cost had reduce profit margin to a great extent. It has become impossible to export goods via air to ensure delivery of export orders on time.
He said that the foreign buyers are already reluctant to visit Pakistan owing to the current law and order situation in the country. He urged the new government to take up the issue of oil prices and power shortage on priority basis and make efforts to resolve these issues as soon a s possible.
The Chairman of North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry (NKATI), Noor Ahmed Khan, said that entire industrial units in the industrial estate remained closed on Tuesday owing to failure of labour to report on duty as a result of transport strike.
He said that there are around 3000 medium and small industrial units in the industrial estate and majority of them are exports-oriented, or vendor industries providing goods to export-oriented units.
Chairman, Site Association of Industry (SAI), Nisar Sakhani, said that industrialists in his estate suffered production losses of around Rs one billion due to transport strike. He said that only 60 percent labour managed to report on duty while 40 percent remained absent. He also criticised long hours load shedding in industrial areas and said that it would affect production targets.
Recalling a meeting with President Musharraf in July 2005 he said that in that meeting business community had expressed concerns that Karachi might go in darkness if the government failed to improve power generation. The President informed business comminute that a number of power generating projects were in the pipeline and there would be no load shedding. "Where are those projects?" he asked.
Former Chairman, Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) Shaikh Manzar Alam said that labour attendance in industrial units remained around 60 percent. Only those having their own transport or living near by managed to report on duty.